President Milanović Meets with Members of the FabLab Association

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović met today with members of the FabLab Association, a non-profit civil society organization founded in 2013. The Association aims to reshape educational processes through cooperation between institutional and non-institutional education, promote the involvement of individuals and groups in innovation development, support small and medium-sized enterprises, and generally foster the digital transformation of society.

Presenting FabLab – a fabrication laboratory – the Association’s president, Robert Vdović, highlighted that these labs are conceived as open spaces where individuals, students, entrepreneurs, and hobbyists can experiment, learn, design, and create. Although the concept is widespread globally, with more than 2,600 such workshops, Croatia currently has only one FabLab, which Vdović believes is not enough.

In addition to participating in global actions and initiatives, the FabLab Association also designs and implements its own projects, such as the Adriatic Green Lab, which aims to promote digital production in isolated communities, including island communities; Designing the Future Academy, a programme that supports the development of new skills needed in the labour market; the Network of Local STEM Ecosystems; and Maker Expo Zagreb, an event showcasing individuals and groups working in creative technologies.

Alongside the president of FabLab Zagreb, Association members Bojan Baletić, Richard Edgeler, and Tatjana Jakšić also attended the meeting at the Office of the President.

President Milanović was accompanied by Jadranka Žarković, Adviser to the President of the Republic for Education.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek